Author: staff

The 23-year-old singer-songwriter took home the top prize with his song ‘Bittersweet nostalgia’ – and he’ll now automatically qualify for Eurovision. The 75th edition of the Sanremo Festival crowned singer-songwriter Olly the winner on Sunday with his song ‘Bittersweet nostalgia.'”It sounds absurd, but it really happened,” the young Genoese artist said on the stage of the Ariston Theatre, before singing again at the end of a very long evening.”I didn’t expect this finale,” Olly added after the win, “it was a leap of faith from the first performance. I am in disbelief. But my life will remain the same, every…

Brazil has been Oscar nominated for Best Picture this year. Could the country win the Berlinale’s top prize before the Academy dish out theirs? Early signs look mighty promising with the stunning ‘The Blue Trail’ in Competition. Brazilian cinema has been doing well of late, especially this year with the country’s first Best Picture Oscar nomination with Walter Salles’ I’m Still Here, which premiered at last year’s Venice Film Festival in Competition.Director Gabriel Mascaro (Neon Bull, Divine Love) does his fellow filmmaker and country proud by playing in Berlin’s Competition this year with O último azul (The Blue Trail).Taking place…

The Brussels prosecutor’s office appointed an investigating judge for murder after the incident on Saturday. It linked the killing to drug trafficking. “We must intensify judicial investigations to dismantle the networks and those pulling the strings,” Brussels prosecutor Julien Moinil told Belga. Belgian Interior Minister Bernard Quintin said that “new and strict measures” are needed. An emergency meeting is scheduled for Monday morning with the federal police and interior ministry. Anderlecht Mayor Fabrice Cumps said following the incident that “this demonstrates that these criminals are undeterred,” as the killing took place “despite police presence 70 meters away.” On Feb. 5,…

It wasn’t clear if the Paris meeting would involve all European Union leaders, or only a smaller group of countries, and if other European leaders would also be invited. Germany, Italy, Britain, Poland and Denmark appear to be invited. United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer indicated late Saturday that he plans to attend the emergency summit, according to media reports. Starmer said Europe is at a “once-in-a-generation moment for our national security.” Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski talked about the planned Paris meeting at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, saying his country’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk will be heading to…

The U.S. has 80,000 troops in Europe, a number that’s jumped by more than 25 percent since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago. The European pillar of NATO and the U.K. spend about $460 billion per year on defense, about half of the Pentagon’s budget.  Visiting the alliance this week, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said American troops were in Europe for now but that “what happens five or 10 or 15 years from now is part of a larger discussion.” It wasn’t hard for most Europeans to read between the lines. “It’s clear where the United States…

Netanyahu said he spoke with Rubio about Trump’s “bold vision” for Gaza’s future, and how to make it become a reality. Earlier this month, Trump said the U.S. would take over the Gaza Strip and turn it into a  riviera. Under the U.S. president’s plan, the population would be transferred to neighboring countries. Arab countries have already voiced their opposition to the proposal. For Rubio, this idea took “courage and vision,” he said during the press conference. “It may have shocked and surprised many, but what cannot continue is the same cycle.” Rubio and Netanyahu also said they discussed the…

“I saw that someone said that there would be a meeting in Saudi Arabia. I do not know what it is,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on Saturday. On the prospect of talks without Ukraine at the table, he said: “Well, this is not a serious conversation, it seems to me.” One Ukrainian official at the conference expressed exasperation at the news, saying: “I don’t know where this came from, or what they expect to be the outcome of these talks where we are not invited.” And back in Kyiv, Mykhailo Podolyak,…

Germany is heading for an election on Feb. 23, and officials and disinformation experts have flagged several coordinated efforts to influence the vote through disinformation. Vance mocked the notion that such campaigns could derail elections. “If your democracy can be destroyed with a few hundred thousand dollars from a foreign country, then it wasn’t very strong to begin with.” In his speech, Vance singled out Romania. A first-round election in November resulted in a surprise victory for the far-right ultranationalist Călin Georgescu, in part thanks to a wildly successful TikTok campaign. The result was later annulled amid concerns over a…

“It’s clear Europe must take on a greater role in NATO as we work with the United States to secure Ukraine’s future and face down the threat we face from Russia,” Starmer said, according to the media reports. Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski talked about the meeting at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, saying his country’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk will be heading to Paris. Sikorski said he expects the emergency meeting to discuss the challenges posed by U.S. President Donald Trump. It’s still unclear who else will be attending the Paris meeting. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen…

“Alexei Navalny gave his life for a free and democratic Russia,” EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas said on the anniversary of his death. The stunning news came in a terse statement from the Russian penitentiary service a year ago: Opposition leader Alexei Navalny had died in the Arctic Circle penal colony where he was serving a prison sentence.In the year since the death of Navalny at the age of 47, the Russian opposition has struggled to find its footing against President Vladimir Putin.Outlawed at home and operating from exile abroad without Putin’s fiercest foe, it has failed…